Angelic Layer Episode 26 Discussion

What did you think of this episode?

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Jul 21, 2009 11:55 PM

jacobpaige

Offline

Feb 2008

5563

THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
the plot was extremely shallow, the fights were unimaginative and unrealistic, and I hated Misaki's seiyu.

but as kid's shows go, it was alright, and I liked the epilogue ending.

Aug 22, 2009 12:43 AM

rweqoiu

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Feb 2009

1637

It was alright.
Ending was ok.

Aug 21, 2011 2:47 PM

Mon_Diamond

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Dec 2009

1641

Angelic Layer has always been my least favorite CLAMP work. The concept of the dolls coming out of eggs is cute I guess, but the story is just shallow. At least I found the anime a little bit more entertaining than the manga >_>

Jul 15, 2012 12:28 AM

Naivette

Offline

Jan 2010

403

I liked it, that was a good series :3. While the manga wasn't my favorite at all, I really like the anime series. It goes more in depth on the characters and rounds out the plot

Aug 6, 2013 1:06 PM

kuuderes_shadow

Offline

Dec 2011

8946

"It's hard to believe Misakicchi made it to the finals" - sure is, Tamayo. After all, she didn't exactly do anything to get there. Other than say "naa" a lot of times.

Everyone goes lesbian for Misaki, and Hikaru the immortal is unaffected from being thrown around in the rain.

Wouldn't you just hate sitting just behind that guy with the flag?

And crowd factor somehow magically heals Hikaru, after she takes a critical hit from below half health. And then she survives another one, with no explanation whatsoever this time.

Well, that's the end of that series. It was - let's be honest - crap. The whole system was broken and didn't make any sense. There was only one match in the entire show that was won on skill, and it was not one of Hikaru's. They completely ignored the characteristics of the angels as well, making it completely imbalanced, especially after the layer started changing. EVERYTHING other than that one fight was thus won on 100% plot armour. And all the story off the layer was an endless stream of cliche and drivel. Then there were all the pictures, where characters stayed stock still in ridiculous or impossible positions for ages. I gave up on trying to watch it seriously early on, instead just laughing at how stupid it was. Worst of all, though, was the fact that it had the most pathetic (and not in the not-all-bad original sense of the word) and ridiculous main character I've ever come across.
I won't miss this series. Nor will I look back on it particularly fondly. I think it just about scrapes a 3/10, though, thanks to being so bad as to provide the occasional bit of amusement. That is, after all, the only reason I was able to complete it.
Sometimes blind buys turn out great. Sometimes they turn out awful. This, sadly, is an exemplary case of the latter possibility.

There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do.

Oct 12, 2013 2:58 AM

na358999

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May 2013

664

great ending i watched this when i was about 10 years old, at that time it was very very enjoying, but when i rewatch it now i feels it is ok, the story is still pretty interesting.

overall 7/10

May 6, 2014 4:53 AM

frozentime4

Offline

Oct 2013

final battle was bs

overall, it was fun to watch. At least, it didn't involve a "save the world" or a "life and death" plot going over a toy game.

May 23, 2014 8:17 PM

Kotori_Sonoda

Offline

Apr 2012

1409

Fun show overall, I'd give it 7/10.

"Fortress Maximus has come himself. Okay! Then I shall get Fortress Maximus to fight me, huh huh huh!"

Feb 23, 2016 9:55 AM

-ShadowClaw-

Offline

Mar 2012

1677

Well finally finished it. Overall it was ok but it is not something i would rewatch and talk about all the time. It was just an alright show.

Part of it why i feel this way...is that when compared to other clamp series such as tsubasa and xxxholic this seems rather weak and it's story just does not connect with me. it has an interesting concept and it was entertaining but that just it..it just entertaining nothing really special.

It seems to me young kids and teenagers would enjoy this series more than the average adult. the only reason i even stick around it trough it all is because one it was made by clamp and two i am planning to watch chobits and this series is a prequel of sorts to it...but only in the same universe wise and does not really have to do with chobits.

I also found out this was Bones second series they ever made and the first the first adaptation of a manga they ever did...it is interesting to see how bones was back than during its early years and how much it has changed...i recommend this show if u want something a bit different and to kill some time or if u are clamp fan, but it is not something i think would suit everyone.

Mar 6, 2017 7:44 PM

#10

removed-user

Offline

Jul 2018

561790

Meh.

Not the best CLAMP work by a long shot.

This final episode itself was pretty boring. The show's draw has never been the actual fighting game for me. The game mechanics have never really been explained clearly and it certainly doesn't seem to follow any sort of logic (eg. Angels can't use weapons, so they should be using hand-to-hand combat, right? but then you get hyper mode and Wizard's magic guard and then the angel wings in this one-- plus where the hell did Hikaru's wings suddenly come from?!). So I didn't care about the fight between Hikaru and Athena at all-- it was obvious who was going to win, anyway.

The series certainly has a ton of potential though-- plenty of character relationships to explore. Some of that potential was revealed last episode with Misaki's breakdown after finally seeing her mom but they basically resolved 7 years of deception in 1 episode lol. And then the love polygon could have been explored, plus Icchan and Shuko, and all the friendships as well (my fave is Hatoko & Misaki's friendship). They could have explored the Angelic Layer game as well, like fighting techniques etc. Or even explore the relationship between Deus and Angel-- their telepathic bond, does that mean the Angels are a manifestation of the Deus's consciousness? their other self? Like how did yelling at Hikaru to stand actually make her wake up and stand up??

Ah well, I like the epilogue at least. And I can't get over how cute Misaki's school uniform is. Count on CLAMP for awesome clothing designs.

Nov 14, 2017 11:44 AM

#11

animelover4432

Offline

Jan 2014

I feel like anime releases have been pretty shallow for the past year and a half or so, but thankfully, I was able to find this hidden gem during such a drought.
This series has easily been better than anything that has aired recently.

Lovely characters, lovely setting, and lovely soundtrack. The story was engaging and kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see how things would turn out.
Although, it did bother me how they reused the same animations a noticeable amount of times, and there was no consistency with the damage in the game's battles.

Overall, a 9/10.

Oct 2, 2018 4:01 AM

#12

phoenix810

Offline

Feb 2015

363

That epilogue was cute.
Fun show - about average for me. It had a good concept but I felt some things were glossed over...like I was curious to know more about the Angel system...like the mind/emotional connection between Deus and Angel.
I still feel Shuko got off easily for all her selfishness...she doesn't deserve such a loving daughter. I do love Hatoko and Misaki's relationship tho...Hatoko is quite the flirt for such a young girl. But later when they are older, I can see it.

Jul 13, 2019 11:00 PM

#13

nidoqueen106

Offline

Jan 2017

627

The plot was a bit predictable.
but I dont see that as bad for this anime. I loved it, it was very sweet and touching. I liked the whole story of why the mom didnt see her daughter, even if it was pretty silly. but I loved the whole tournament battle format. honestly I wish there were more episodes or an OVA just to see more fun battles and explanation on the tech for this all. but the only thing I wish they woulda went into was the boss's love for misaki's mom like have an episode where he ends up marrying her*

further more, I love the whole artstyle regardless of how old it is, but there were some "dated" episodes I felt like the whole episode about a sexiest boy saying "oh girls suck at all outdoor activities" and the generic "we must avenge our pride in this dumb toy battle"
Beyond that Id say a 9.6 outta 10

Nov 20, 2019 5:22 PM

#14

AngelPeachx

Offline

Jun 2019

jacobpaige said:
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
the plot was extremely shallow, the fights were unimaginative and unrealistic, and I hated Misaki's seiyu.

but as kid's shows go, it was alright, and I liked the epilogue ending.

X2
Specially about Misaki's Seiyuu, it's really annoying

Feb 14, 2020 9:38 AM

#15

Feniksrises

Offline

Dec 2014

779

Hatoko chan is CUTE. That is all.

Jan 15, 2021 5:10 PM

#16

haydenluvsanime

Offline

Jun 2015

1187

Such a sweet ending! Loved that so much <3

💖 𝐼'𝓂 𝒽𝒶𝓎𝒹𝑒𝓃❣ 💖

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ 💝 𝒯𝓌𝒾𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 💝 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝒯𝓊𝒷𝑒 💝 ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆
💝 𝑀𝓎𝐹𝒾𝑔𝓊𝓇𝑒𝒞𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 💝

Sep 24, 2022 8:28 PM

#17

Yin-390

Offline

Jan 2015

It was really nice and all, but I don't feel like changing the winner of the last fight was necessary for the story. Kinda felt forced ): would have been nice if we at least saw Misaki considering the wings or just a mention of an adition to Hikaru beforehand...
Still good tho.

Jan 13, 8:07 PM

#18

SlammyHammy

Offline

Sep 2020

703

Nice, sweet ending and everybody goes away happy. The closing shot with the Angels was beautiful.

Overall, I really liked the show. On the one hand, it's pretty straightforward, and despite the fantastical nature of the game, the story is realistic and a hopeful exploration of future disability tech. The fights are great, especially being mainly hand-to-hand combat with very little supernatural stuff. On the other hand, I had to turn my brain off and ignore the massive deficiencies.

1. I wish they explored the tech behind the Angels and the 3D battlefield.
- What was the point of having to open the egg in the bath in the first place?
- Assuming everyone had standard production models, why did some have superpowers and others not? On that point, Athena's Genki-dama should've been illegal imo.
- The HP system: Why did some get KO'ed by 1-hit while others could take a pummeling and still have a bunch left? (besides plot armor)

2. Too many unimportant side characters
- Ogata's "punishment games" were just dumb
- That whole chauvinist episode about "girls can't beat boys", NEVERMIND THAT 99% OF ANGELS ARE GIRLS, THERE WAS PRACTICALLY ONLY 1 BOY IN THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT, AND THE UNBEATEN CHAMPION IS A WOMAN.

3. The mom
- The fact that she left her daughter for 7 years without any communication at all, apparently, and simply because she didn't want to be seen as disabled and in a wheelchair was dumb and ran contrary to the overall message of believing in yourself and not giving up.
- By all accounts, Misaki should've grown up traumatized, believing her mom was either dead or straight up abandoned her
- She shouldn't have lost the finale. How many years of fight experience and being at the top vs. a scrub that just started about a month ago, barely had any training, and barely eked by every win? Hell, she practically built the system and should know every bit of intricacies. Make the fight exciting but it should've been no contest.

Despite all this, it was a really entertaining and enjoyable show, and I even think it was the best CLAMP show for me.

8.5 earth angels /10

"You can't decide the future, but I'm going to re-educate you in the past!" - Erna Kurtz

Apr 24, 7:22 AM

#19

Psatorn

Offline

Jun 2024

102

absolute cinema

i love her mom

Oct 19, 7:16 AM

#20

Darkdaxter

Offline

Mar 2016

457

Looking at the other comments makes me chuckle.

This is clearly a shoujo anime with a shounen battle system similar to something like Sailor Moon. It suffers from the same flaws many competitive anime do (especially tcg or tabletop game ones). The rules are vague, power-creep is rather high, the technology isn't really explained, and superpowers end up making the entire tournament feel rigged. For example it is the company's tournament, but I don't think anyone would accept a non-consolation match with someone DIRECTLY involved with the company as being fair in real life, especially if they're upper-brass. That being said, I'm used to these things and so they didn't threaten my suspension of disbelief.

Going deeper into this, one might say the technology is making something out of nothing; isn't that a crazy breakthrough that would upend society? I think the layer environments are essentially holograms. They simulate the environment's effects on the dolls by relaying that information directly into the deus' minds, which is why they don't get wet from water. One might reasonably question how the repair tubes work. And again I think you have to overlook this a little. In the real world we would buy or order different base models, but they went with a one-size-fits-all customizable approach instead. It doesn't make logistical sense, but I think it's perfectly forgivable in universe. Likewise repairing the doll's skin would seemingly take more than a minute and require physical work, but I imagine the tournament tubes automatically sense where damage is and crudely feed artificial skin. After all one of her opponents mentions replacing the skin outside of battle, and Misaki's cable isn't repaired in the Wizard fight.

Moving onto the battle techniques, Yes many of them are definitely ass-pulls. Hyper mode at least makes sense from the standpoint of a robot limiting its force to prevent damage to its body, and it's just visually represented for the viewer. Many real robots have suffered similar bugs. The Magic Guard is the next most realistic one. How exactly Wizard is building the static electricity and turning it off and on is never explained, but it's not impossible to imagine him rubbing his cape or the ground to generate it somehow. Ranga's wind slices are a staple in shounen. They're definitely impossible for a tiny doll to generate, so they must have to be holograms. It's strange no other deus uses them later. The tall girl's prism likewise. Yes, I get she's essentially manipulating the hologram, but how on Earth she's doing that makes zero sense. Growing wings seems impossible. At least if you already have them you can flex your shoulder blades to flap and glide. Finally the spirit bomb just has to be some crazy hologram cheat code. It's definitely the most game-breaking power.

A lot of people hate cute characters, and Misaki is definitely diabetes. I loved her. People are criticizing her growth. Again I feel like this is pretty typical for short shounen series. She does lose multiple times. She is always training both on and offscreen and in real life to come up with better strategies and fighting moves. She clearly has a high level of innate talent. I don't think she should have won the final battle, but it certainly fits with the theme.

I liked the other characters, even the worse ones. Misaki definitely grew herself a wonderful harem of waifus. The characters might not be deep, but they do certainly have depth. It's not like Jujutsu Kaisen where each character has one trait, a short exposition dump that is only told not shown, and that's basically it until they die. The characters here do grow. They have arcs and develop. They feel natural and organic in the world. No one feels out of place. Their motivations are perfectly understandable. It's not necessarily realistic for every character to be immediately redeemed, but these redemptions don't come out of nowhere. They're always coupled by external people pushing them along.

Getting into the real meat and potatoes here. Misaki's mom is definitely the worst character, even if I did still like her. She is unbelievably selfish throughout the entire show. She constantly burdens the people around her and does whatever she wants. Her sister, her second, her coworkers, her "boyfriend" are all consistently pushing her to meet Misaki and even scheming to make it happen. It's the whole reason Ichiro gets Misaki to play Angelic Layer in the first place. Despite this Suzuhara routinely runs away at the last minute, once again abandoning her maternal responsibilities. To my surprise, the show didn't just handwave this problem away. She's actually called out on it. Misaki actually confronts her on it. Suzuhara actually apologizes.

I will continue on this chain of thought after interjecting about Tamayo because she shares the same problem. At the start of the series, Tamayo insists that she and Kotaro could never be together. She constantly teases him, blurts out his personal information, invades his personal space, interrupts any chance he has to develop a relationship with another girl. And most importantly she is constantly hitting, choking, and slamming into him unannounced. Tamayo knows the kind of girls Kotaro likes, but she refuses to develop any of those skills or subdue her boisterous and combative personality to any degree. She settles on being the one closest to him through a shared hobby he does with his male friends without ever announcing herself as a girl. 'Tomo-chan Is a Girl!' handles this problem much better in my opinion, where Tomo has ambivalent feelings and doesn't fully understand her childhood friend's feelings either. She's fully true to her personality but still takes steps to be more effeminate for her love interest. In contrast Tamayo knows exactly what she wants and not only blocks every chance at getting it, but also ensures that Kotaro will never see her as an option. She will always be the friend who's constantly bullying and hitting him that he is forbidden from actually hitting back.

I think you can see how both of these character dilemmas are related. Both Misaki and Kotaro are far too accepting of their mistreatment. I'm not angry at the ultimate outcomes; I genuinely supported them. I wanted Misaki to get angry with Suzuhara. I wanted her to dress her down. "Why weren't you in my life? You abandoned me 7 years ago for your own ego to gain fame playing a children's game. Even if you were sick, I still desperately needed a mother!"

Likewise Kotaro never actually really brings up Tamayo's behavior. In the final episodes, Kotaro lists all of the things she shouldn't do anymore, but of course Tamayo goes right back to choking him. Where is the, "You like me!? You have a funny way of showing it! You're wondering why I look towards other girls? You know I can't fight back but you insist on attacking me every single day! Why would I want my girlfriend to hit me and embarass me all the time!? At least other girls are sweet and nice and kind. When exactly did you ever consider how I felt? What I wanted?"

These scenes were missed growth opportunities that would've felt so satisfying and cathartic. I preferred Kotaro x Misaki, but I certainly don't mind Tamayo. And I certainly wouldn't mind a bit of that energy in his position. Both are done well enough that they feel like organic development, but they lack that cherry-on-top to really elevate and capitalize on what the victimized characters should be feeling.

Moving on to the obvious plot-holes. Misaki never bothers to check into her mother's job. Misaki never bothers to check into Athena. Sure Suzuhara is using a pseudonym, but no one can figure out the connection? The grandparents and aunt are really this fine with Suzuhara shirking her duties? They'd probably feel exasperated and try to force a meeting at some point. I also think they missed an opportunity for Misaki to inherit the disease. If she would also lose her ability to walk in her 20s it would add an extra layer of urgency to the mom's mission.

Beyond that we have some of the staples of female-written shows. Forgive all my misbehavior because it's romantic. Tall girls can't get boys (even though she does). Girls can't beat boys (even though 99% of deus' are girls). And who doesn't like a love pentagon? But again, I expected all those things, and they really weren't particularly egregious here. In fact they had rather wholesome ends.

9/10. I thoroughly enjoyed this show. All the couples ended up together. If I had to choose an OTP, it would be Misaki x Hatoko. But of course the harem ending would be most fun.

DarkdaxterOct 19, 7:23 AM

See All Discussions

Poll: » Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer Episode 19 Discussion removed-user - Mar 2, 2017	2	by Darkdaxter »» Oct 18, 6:23 PM
Poll: » Angelic Layer Episode 17 Discussion jacobpaige - Jul 21, 2009	6	by Darkdaxter »» Oct 18, 5:17 PM
Poll: » Angelic Layer Episode 12 Discussion Kotori_Sonoda - May 8, 2014	3	by Darkdaxter »» Oct 17, 7:16 PM
Poll: » Angelic Layer Episode 7 Discussion willag - Aug 26, 2011	7	by Darkdaxter »» Oct 6, 4:47 PM
Poll: » Angelic Layer Episode 10 Discussion willag - Aug 26, 2011	3	by Psatorn »» Apr 22, 5:07 AM

Angelic Layer Episode 26 Discussion

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